Silence resonated around the room as the door to the room Aoba and Kida were going to be staying in for the time being clicked shut and locked. It was a simple little space that luckily included a bathroom and had a plain and simple decor. The walls were a dark shade of grey and the beds on either side of the room were donned with grey and white sheets with pillows that looked straight out of a magazine cover. The rug was plush and of course, white along with the dresser and lamp that were filling up the small area. A little ways in front of the doorway was a black table with four chairs around it and two steaming plates of chicken and rice resting on top of it.
Without a word, Kuronuma sat down at the table and pulled his plate to him. He hadn't talked to the blonde or as much as looked in Masaomi's direction on the way back. The smaller was practically sizzling with anger while Kida had completely simmered down. The blonde felt a little regretful that the very first thing he had said to Aoba was anything other than 'Are you okay?', but he also felt as though he needed to stress just how stupid and careless Aoba had been. Hell, the whole time Kuronuma had been uncharacteristically reckless. Usually the raven was the exact opposite. Maybe it was lack of sleep making his judgement cloud over, maybe it was stress, possibly it was dehydration and hunger, maybe it was a combination of all of those things. Whatever caused this shift, Kida hoped that a good night's rest, the calm environment, a full stomach, and plenty of water would return him to his usual self. The underclassmen was proving to be more than a handful and as much as Masaomi hated to say it, a complete hindrance.
Today had marked him completely as such. The privilege of having free rein when they were allowed outside had been revoked after the incident. That small freedom was gone as was many missed opportunities to possibly escape. It would have been so easy too. Just to disappear into the forest in wolf form and never return. The soldiers and scientists hadn't realized just how easy it was until today when Aoba turned up completely missing.
With a sigh, the taller sat down and pulled his own plate to him, looking up to see if Aoba was staring in his direction. Sure enough, the younger's eyes were completely glued to him. The raven's brown orbs were daggers and the look was so suffocating that Masaomi felt as though he was drowning under such a heavy gaze. Kida tried his hardest to look back at Aoba passively until the teen grew tired of trying and failing to make the blonde drop to his level. When Kuronuma was again focused on his plate and disregarding Kida like before, the older let his mind wander back to the scars on the smaller's back as he brought his chicken to his mouth.
The raven was extremely touchy about them and the story surrounding them. If the smaller had a weakness, this was definitely it. Masaomi felt a shift in the younger teen whenever the topic came up. He seemed more… vulnerable in a way. The teen's emotions and expressions were raw and unfiltered whenever his mind was plagued with memories of his past. Kida hadn't forgotten when the smaller had flinched away from his touch and trembled under his fingers as he washed his back of dirt and grime. The blonde hadn't thought much of it then thinking that he was just surprised at the suddenness of the action, but now the knowledge that it was likely his instinct to flinch away from another's touch made Masaomi feel bile rise at the back of his throat. What had happened? Who had hurt him? Why? Was this the whole extent of the abuse he'd received or was there more hiding just behind the seams?
"Stop looking at me like that.", Kuronuma ground out in frustration as he dropped his fork, the silverware clinking against his ceramic plate.
"Like what?", Kida blinked as his thoughts came to an abrupt stop.
"Like I'm broken or something!"
The blonde hadn't expected that answer and all he could do was blink at Aoba's irritation. Kuronuma's lips pulled downwards into a slight frown, his brows furrowing in a look of a mixture of anger and frustration. The younger teen pushed his plate away from him so that the dish clanked into Kida's and stood, walking to one of the two beds on the other side of the room. Masaomi's first instinct was to get up and follow; try to decipher just what that look meant, but his body wouldn't move. The blonde wanted to know. He wanted to pick at Aoba until he caved in and told him everything, but at the same time he felt as though he was sticking his nose into something that should be left alone.
Instead of demanding any answers, Kida watched Aoba settle in and pull the covers up over his head. The raven shuffled around a bit after that and then promptly turned over onto his side, facing the wall, and went still. Masaomi waited for at least three minutes for something to happen before he forced himself to turn back to his food. Silence returned to the room save for the clink of silverware on ceramic. Kida let his mind go pleasantly blank in this moment of stillness, wanting to forget everything for a bit while things were calm and quiet. The tenseness in his shoulders slowly fell and the frown that had seemed to be permanently etched onto his face drew upwards into a natural straight line. His guarded brown eyes that held a constant loathing and held his inner emotions within dropped their shields and swords and took a well-deserved rest.
Masaomi hadn't felt this at peace since middle school, before war began to tear countries apart, before he'd gotten mixed up in gangs. He felt a pleasant nothingness. He felt nothing, thought nothing, wanted for nothing. It was just him, Aoba, and the box of a room containing them. The world had been reduced to this small sanctuary. If only life was really so simple...
"Hey Masaomi…", the raven called from the bed to the left, startling the blonde a bit at the unexpected sound of his voice. "Do you think I'm weak or something?"
Kida didn't respond, his eyes blank, as a frustrated huff filled the air.
"I can't believe you think that I'm incapable of taking care of myself, that I need to be treated like a child because of a few scars and a dark background. Everyone who's ever laid eyes on them and heard my story has thought that too, but I didn't think you would be too bad given your own dark history."
The blonde listened to every word carefully, this rare moment of vulnerability and openness not being taken for granted as he waited for the smaller to continue.
"I don't need to be treated like I'm broken. I don't need to be fixed. I don't need to be pitied. I just need to be seen as an equal, to be seen as capable of taking care of myself. I'm not saying that I don't need your help, it's just that you're looking down on me, smothering me really."
"Maybe that has more to do with what happened to Saki, but I'm neither a brunette nor a female. Stop trying to fill the void she left in you with something that isn't even vaguely the same. I'm not her, Masaomi. Not even close."
There was a long silence after that as Masaomi's eyes glared at the back of the raven's head. Is that what he thinks it is? That he was trying to fill the empty space that Saki once inhabited? Like he could even try to replace her! That's impossible. Even if he did try, he would definitely not try and replace her with Kuronuma of all people. Kida just wanted to at least be in the presence of another person that he didn't have to be wary around. When the world was coming down around you, you wanted the comfort of another body desperately. Just the feel of sitting side by side, bodies pressed together for either warmth or support, was a blessing in times like this. To have your trust resting only in one single person AND to be connected by your past, it was the only comfort one could have right now.
Now imagine that being suddenly ripped away. Gone. The last thing you had in this world erased from the very face of it. And it could happen in an instant, at any time. Maybe you weren't fast enough, maybe you had been too careless, inattentive, maybe you were led into a trap and you came out the only one still alive, maybe in your escape one of you were just too slow. The possibilities were endless. The best way to prevent anything bad happening to the last thing you have left is to guard it, stay close; never let it out of your sight. One small slip up had a large price to pay and no one would want to take the chance.
" All you've done this whole entire time is thrown yourself straight into danger. Like hell I could just see you as able to take care of yourself on a whim. If I did you'd be dead, two times over to be exact. And to say that I'm trying to use you as a replacement? Get over yourself. ", the blonde said harshly as he pushed his now empty plate away with more force than necessary.
Both plates fell to the floor with a crash, shattering and littering the carpet with small shards of white ceramic. Aoba immediately shot up like an arrow, his head still covered by the comforter, but his eyes and face exposed to look at the heated blonde.
"Are you too busy fucking around and trying to act all high and mighty to realize the situation we're in?", Masaomi spat. "Open your eyes Kuronuma! The world is finally going to shit and there's no way in hell that it will get better. This is the end. Once they start breaking out the bombs, we're done for."
The raven sat with his eyes wide, his glare faltering as he wavered a bit.
"You and you alone are the last person I can trust. The last person that I have from what was the once crazy and notorious city of Ikebukuro. Everyone else is gone and I'll probably never see them again and once you're gone, there's no one. Don't you get that? If you die, I'll be alone. Then when it finally comes down to my last moments on this godforsaken planet, I'll die alone too. So fuck you and your 'I wanna be seen as being able to take care of myself' bullshit. I can't even manage to do that, so I know for fact that you won't be able to either. Another word about this ever again and I swear to god, Kuronuma…"
Aoba watched as the older male's fists tightened and untightened at his sides; his bangs covering his eyes. His body was shaking as if his frame couldn't even contain the amount of rage he was feeling. The blonde looked like he wanted to just go on a full-out rampage; just destroy everything in the room including him, but surprisingly he held back. The raven guessed that he was preparing to at least beat him up a bit if he said something that set the upperclassmen off. Luckily, the smaller had nothing to say. Reality had hit him hard. This was really it. The final stage. They were all running on borrowed time. Any second now could be their last moments on earth. There was no time to be worried about appearances, to be worried about holding back secrets, to even bother with the past or wistful thinking. They needed to escape. They needed to work together and find a way to be able to spend the last weeks, months, years, or however much time they had left, free. Fighting and pointing fingers isn't going to get them any closer to that.
Kuronuma dropped his wide eyes to his lap, thinking about all the times he'd been careless with his life. He'd pretty much tried to throw it away without really meaning to. He had a personal vendetta against the world and he took a rebellious stand instead of a level-headed self-destructive attitude was nothing like his usual self at all. He had spent his whole life making good use of his brain; making good decisions and figuring out the best course of action and here he was completely contradicting his life's actions. Kida was right. If he wasn't around, he'd be dead. Two times over to be exact.
The day he was captured the first time, he'd been careless and painfully so. He had been walking down the street cockily, feeling as though no one would even think of taking him and if they did then they wouldn't be able to manage it. He'd eyed the disasters all around him with an observer's eye, as if he was merely a spectator in the event as he watched desperate hands reach for him, begging for his help as he merely walked onwards. There was no way to help them anyways. Most were trapped under pounds and pounds of rubble and even if he'd managed to somehow get them free, they'd be too damaged to go anywhere. Others were either on fire or bleeding to death and Kuronuma quickly decided that if he couldn't help, then he wouldn't get involved.
Calmly, he'd watched the city fall to the ground before him as he steadily evacuated like it was a school fire drill. There was no point in running. No one hardly ever noticed him anyways. He'd vaguely thought about how tedious life was becoming, how struggling seemed nearly pointless. Even if he lived another day, he'd be struggling just to get by. He'd eventually have to run again and he'd eventually have nowhere to run to. Aoba had spent so much time, so much just trying to survive and now he was all the way back at square one. There was no feeling of hopelessness in that moment though. No he didn't feel that, just irritation.
Just as Aoba reached the center of town, a group of people ran past him, the crowd was to thick that he couldn't do anything but try and stand still as they rushed by. He didn't think about what it was that they were running from until hands suddenly grasped him without warning, Kuronuma routinely pulled his knife and fought as his body had been programmed to do over the years. He had put up a good fight, even managing to cut one of them men's left eye out, but in the end he lost the battle. The teen was greatly annoyed as the men angrily escort him to the cattle car. His body still fought to free itself every step of the way even though he knew he wouldn't be able to escape their strong grasps. This was not how he wanted things to go. Aoba was sure that once he was placed into the cattle car, he would never be be free again. The teen eyed the cattle car ahead of them with a slight feeling of dread and fought again, managing to free himself for a few seconds before he was captured again.
Just when things truly looked bleakr, Kida had come barreling into the fray. His eyes were wild and desperate; filled with the life that he thought surely had left him when Saki had gone. His will to live had been reignited by something and Aoba couldn't even begin to guess what that something was. Kuronuma had been so positive that Masaomi would die within days of him leaving, but apparently Kida had thrived in his absence. The raven had almost felt bad for the blonde then, seeing that they now both were going to be captured. He was sure that the upperclassmen would fall back to the hopeless state Aoba had left him in a week back, but again the world proved him wrong.
Something had proved to be of bigger importance as the squad around them dissipated and took chase after something that he didn't care to even look at. Before Kuronuma could even begin to gather his bearings, his arm was grasped and he was being swiftly led away, out of the city. As he was dragged along, he noticed how deeply the blonde's fingers were digging into his skin. It showed just how determined the older teen was. He was going to fight down to the very last moment and Kuronuma still fought to think of what would have caused this change. Whatever it was, good for Kida. He didn't want to deal with other people anymore. Planting his feet into the ground, he forced them to a stop; his eyes looking up at the teen defiantly as he waited for the blonde to release him. Brown eyes had raked over him for a long moment before the grip on his arm tightened and he was pulled forward once again. The message was clear: 'You're coming with me.'
Kuronuma had been especially irritated at being led around like some child, but now that he thought about it, that was probably what he needed. Being rebellious went hand in hand with being reckless and that was a sure death sentence. Aoba had been reduced to a force that used ability over any sort of reason. Now though, in the present, that danger was gone. The raven's voice of reason had been awakened again and all it had took was Kida's insistent grip tugging him forward once more. Suddenly everything wasn't something to take lightly, something to observe with mild interest. Everything was serious now.
Kida watched the younger male quietly, his eyes hard and unforgiving as the shorter teen was forced to face everything full-on now. He could feel the shift in the air, that vulnerability that he sometimes got a glimpse of, coming out at a constant stream. His ego had been thrown to the side, his walls had come crashing down. Now Masaomi could see him clearly, without anything to block his view. The smaller was completely unsure of himself. His brows were furrowed with the effort of trying to figure himself out as he clenched the comforter in his fingers. The confusion only lasted for a minute or so before a look of calm took over Aoba's features. He'd finally found himself again.
"Masaomi...", the raven spoke up after a long minute or so, looking at Kida who still wore a stern face.
What Aoba had said wasn't a completely sentence or thought for that matter, but that was all he needed to say. He was back.
How the fuck did this happen? How the hell was he overpowered by the scrawny little flea? Oh that's right, he had hesitated. Shizuo felt disgusted with himself for that. He hated the little parasite; just barely withheld any impending punches to the raven's gut whenever he spoke, yet he couldn't do it. The blonde couldn't bring himself to kill Izaya.
He could have done it so easily too. All he had to do was turn Orihara's head at an odd angle and he'd be finished. The effort would be about as much as you would exert if you were bending a paperclip. Yet he couldn't do it. He wasn't a killer. Shizuo refused to live up to the monster title he'd been given, refused to take a life with his inhuman strength. Really, he just didn't have the heart; just didn't have it in him to kill.
The blonde felt himself inwardly cringe at the realization that he would have let Orihara kill him. Even when he snapped back, realized what was happening, he did nothing. He LET the raven choke him until he passed out. A shudder ran through the bartender at the memory of it all. The feeling he had when it was happening was indecipherable. There was a vague feeling of disbelief, shock, fear, and then finally acceptance. The blonde had fought against the last feeling, wanting to rebuke just a little, to put up some sort of resistance by twisting his fingers into the informant's hair. Shizou could have easily ripped Orihara off of him in this moment, but the force would have hurt the smaller male badly or even killed him. Wary of his strength and fearful that he'd have someone's blood on his hands, Heiwajima just simply gave in. He saw no way around it.
As the blonde rocked with the swaying footsteps of what was bound to be a horse, Shizuo felt like his head was just a ball of lead. His body ached with the exhaustion of long sleepless nights having caught up with him. It was as if the whole ordeal of being nearly choked to death had drained him of every last drop of energy he had left. Again Shizuo cursed himself for not reacting, not fighting back. Kazuki was in town right now falling right into death's dark embrace and all he could do was pitifully lay on the back of a horse and wallow in his inability to act.
"It should be easy enough. It's not too hard to snipe two people from the roof of a house, right? He has the advantage.", Izaya murmured to himself as he rode on silently, tugging slightly on the lead rope around the horn of Sukeban's saddle to urge Raiju to keep up with the Palomino's pace.
Shizou's ears perked at the sound of the informant's voice. He'd seen the said sniper rifle that the raven was speaking of at the side of Hizoku's saddle bag, standing menacingly in its special pocket. It had made him a bit nervous, but once he was sure that the brunette wasn't going to use it on them, he didn't mind it.
"What do you think, Shizu-chan? Kazuki should have a good chance of surviving, right?", the reddish brown eyed male asked in a light tone.
Shizuo didn't respond, couldn't respond really. His body was still heavy and even moving his tongue and jaw was too much effort. How did the informant even know he was awake? He must look like a corpse.
"Ah, I keep forgetting that you're asleep. How disappointing. Well, it's good that you're still sleeping since you would just do something stupid.", Izaya sighed in a frustrated huff.
There was silence for a few seconds before Orihara spoke up again.
"So a monster can show compassion… I never knew a monster had the mental capacity for something as trivial as that. You continue to surprise me. Most of my play pieces are boring, one-dimensional, and predictable but you, my dear Shizu-chan, are the wild card. There's no telling what you will do and how you react. It's infuriating as well as interesting."
The blonde listened to the man babble on as he quickly moved to a different topic, stopping the horses under what must be a shady tree or something. The light smoothness of his voice was actually a little soothing once you drowned out the meaning behind his rage-inducing words. Shizuo was then immediately reminded again of sirens leading sailors to their doom with their lulling voices and he silently wondered if Izaya had done the same to Kazuki. Before he could question this theory further, there was a break in the soft flow of words tumbling out of the raven's mouth followed by a curse.
Judging by the awkward shuffling that had been heard and the distressed snort from Sukeban, Orihara was having trouble getting off the horse. Shizuo guessed it was the soreness that came from riding for too long.
"Hey, you can wake up now. I don't think my shoulder can handle anything else today. I already pushed it and it's bleeding like crazy."
At that, brown orbs slowly opened. Izaya was unexpectedly close, his face about twelve inches away from his own. It was a bit of a shock, but the blonde's body was so drained that he didn't even jerk. The informant's eyes had a curious lit to them, watching the bartender take in the world slowly. The sun was high in the sky, telling Shizuo that it was midday and the slight rustle of leaves whenever the wind blew proved his assumption about being under a tree to be right. Still interested in seeing how injured the informant was, Heiwajima's eyes wandered to the shorter male's clothed shoulder. It was hard to see any blood on the black jacket, but one could clearly see a large wet spot covering the shoulder of it.
That's when Shizuo noticed. Orihara was paler than usual, his eyes seemingly tired and his movements a little unsteady. Apparently, the male had lost a little bit too much blood.
"So you've finally returned to the land of the living. Did you have a nice nap?", the informant smirked, his laugh sounding a little too airy.
Shizuo groaned in response as he shut his eyes again, still not wanting to move in the slightest. But he had too. Izaya was clearly not capable of moving him at the moment.
"I thought you were going to kill me.", Heiwajima said in a deep and guttural voice sliding his body slowly to the side, preparing to get off Raiju.
"Why would I do that when you're much more useful to me alive than dead?", Izaya asked as if he were stupid.
The taller male grunted in response. Fair enough. His strength was something Orihara still wanted to exploit. Knowing that it wouldn't hurt, Shizuo simply rolled off the horse, falling to the floor with a thump. As he lay there face down in the dirt, the blonde heard a deep sigh.
"That's not how you get off a horse, Shizu-chan.", the raven said as he grabbed hold of Heiwajima's bartender uniform and dragged him, one-handed, towards the shade of the tree.
The taller male's face was dragged through many sharp stones, but his body was so resistant to pain and damage that it wasn't a problem. Instead, the blonde wondered how much more damage had come to the informant's shoulder when he'd put him back on the horse earlier today. Shizuo definitely didn't want Izaya to die and leave him either entirely alone or with Kazuki. A slow death alone was just as bad as awkwardly tagging along with the sickeningly sweet man who was so caring that it almost made him feel bad for being so mean to people in his lifetime.
"You should have left me there.", the blonde mumbled, nose still pressed into the ground.
"And have you die of heatstroke?", the raven huffed with effort as he sat down heavily a little ways away from Heiwajima. "Like I said before, you're still useful to me so I need you to stay alive."
"Yeah, but what's the point if you just die of bloodloss?"
"Hmmmm, you have a point for once. Scary.", Orihara laughed as he let his head fall back into the bark of the tree. "We need to find somewhere to stay soon or else this really could get infected."
There was a long silence after that as Izaya's breathing became a little harsh. His wound was aggravated and it voiced this fact quite painfully.
"How long are we waiting for him?", the blonde asked, feeling his body become less and less heavy and unresponsive as he watched Orihara pull the pill bottle from his jacket pocket and down four pills eagerly.
"As of now? Dawn. I can't afford to stay here for long. We don't have much water and I need to rest this shoulder or else the damage to the muscles could be permanent.", Izaya responded, as he took off his jacket.
Underneath, the informant had on a white tee shirt. Now Shizuo could clearly see the blood and just how heavily the raven was bleeding. Hissing painfully, the raven then shed himself of the shirt, his shoulder screaming in protest to anymore movements. The bandage currently around Orihara's shoulder was completely soaked through. Wincing in pity, Heiwajima watched as Izaya slowly unwrapped the cloth. It must have been unbelievably painful judging by how the raven's eyes watered as his teeth dug into his bottom lip.
"Shit…", the smaller male muttered as he saw just how red and angry the wound was.
It was swelling up so much that he was sure that soon he wouldn't be able to move it at all. There was no way he could keep pushing it. Even riding wasn't going to be an option.
"We're going to have to stay in this town. There's no way I can ride like this.", Izaya sighed as he got up to retrieve new bandages and a hand towel from Sukeban's saddle bag.
When Orihara came back to sit down again, Shizuo had to look away as the informant began to dab at the blood dripping out of his wound. The strained hisses and whines were enough to make the blonde's skin crawl even without the visual.
"Don't tell me you're squeamish all of the sudden. I'm going to need your help.", Izaya half-teased as he dumped the fresh bandages into Shizuo's lap.
"I-I can't do-"
"You've done it before and you can do it again."
The blonde took a deep breath and picked up the fresh roll of bandages, eyeing the bloody hole in the smaller male's shoulder warily. It looked like it was infected already and not to mention extremely painful. It made his own shoulder hurt just looking at it and he desperately wanted to just look away. Sensing the uncertainty in the taller, Orihara looked back and captured his brown eyes in his own reddish brown ones. Heiwajima was surprised to see that even though the raven's body was trembling, his gaze was completely steady. Through his glinting eyes, Izaya told him to calm down and do what needed to be done. When he was sure his message had been received, he looked forward again.
Shizuo steeled himself after that and dutifully dressed and rewrapped Orihara's shoulder. All the while, Izaya's body began to shake more and more violently as his hisses and breathing increased in volume. Apparently the ibuprofen either hadn't kicked in yet or was entirely useless. Heiwajima cursed as he felt his resolve crumbling. He was growing more and more sickened by the second, but thankfully he held out until the very end. Heiwajima didn't even know he was squeamish until now, and apparently, he was so much so that he would actually throw up if he stared for too long.
Izaya laughed softly through his own agony as he watched Shizuo regurgitate everything in his stomach and then dry heave for a good five minutes afterwards. This was just too ironic.
"Shizu-chan is squeamish then. That's weird considering how many people you've beat to a bloody pulp in your lifetime.", the informant teased as the bartender tried to straighten himself out.
"Shut up.", Shizuo growled as he dragged himself away from the mess he'd made and simply laid on his back under the shade of the oak.
There was a silence after that as Izaya closed his eyes tightly and tried to ignore the insistent throb in his shoulder. How he was going to get back to town was beyond him. There's no way he could get back on Sukeban again, climbing on her back wasn't even within his abilities at the moment. Walking was going to suck, but he had to get back somehow.
"We're leaving." Heiwajima stated out of the blue as he stood up stiffly, back supported heavily by the tree's trunk; his legs shaking heavily from the stream of his own weight, "I'll throw you back up on the horse and we'll go look for a house somewhere."
Orihara opened his eyes with a sigh as he looked at the serious orbs staring at him expectantly.
"You can't even walk, Protozoan. There's no way you'd be able to pick me up in your state nor do I want you to."
"Too bad. I'm putting you on the damn horse anyways.", the blonde stated. "We're going back to town, finding a house, and then I'm looking for Kiyoshi."
Izaya's eyes narrowed a bit as he looked up at Shizuo, his smirk dissipating.
"Unless you want to help him kill the scouts, don't even bother."
"Dammit ,Izaya! We don't HAVE to kill them! Let's just run and shake them off our trail!", Heiwajima insisted.
Orihara felt his irritation growing by the second. There was no other way to go about it! The raven had thought long about solutions that didn't involve spilt blood, but there was no way to do that without being eventually captured. If they took care of the scouts now, they possibly wouldn't have to deal with the Defense later on.
"We have to. I can't go anywhere.", Izaya explained. " If we take care of these two now, then we won't have to fight off a whole squad later. Just think of it this way: Would you rather kill two people or six, possibly twelve if it's a big squad?"
That shut the blonde up for a moment as the taller male thought about it for a few seconds, but that silence didn't last long as he shook his head clear of, what the raven assumed, was common sense.
"But I can't just let Kiyoshi die! Two against one is a suicide mission!", the bartender yelled frustratedly.
"Then help him.", the informant said flatly, his eyes serious and his lips not even in a ghost of a smirk.
Whatever words Heiwajima was going to say after that, caught in his throat as his eyes widened with realization at what was said. Shizuo's body shuddered a bit, before he pulled himself back from whatever he was envisioning.
"Why can't YOU help him?", the bartender grumbled, his eyes on the ground.
"I'm injured and even if I wasn't, I wouldn't help. I love humans too much to take their lives with my own hand.", Izaya said with his smirk returning.
Shizuo decided to just ignore everything past 'I'm injured.' to save himself the unnecessary anger and thought about what he was going to do. If he stopped Kazuki then chances are that they'd have to kill more people later. If he let the brunette be, then his chances of survival were slim and they'd still have to deal with a squad coming after them. He could probably take out one of the scouts easily, but if he wasn't fast enough to kill the second, he was finished. The only way to get a happy ending in all of this, was for the bartender to help slaughter the two scouts. The blonde was so deep in thought that he didn't notice Orihara grabbing his shirt and jacket and getting to his feet. The informant had had enough of the whole situation at hand and was contemplating just striking out on his own and finding a bunker to hide out in again until the danger passed. Even though it was extremely lonely, Izaya survived more effectively while on his own. I mean, if he hadn't have paired up with Kida, he wouldn't currently have a hole in his shoulder. This whole 'group' thing was turning out to be a death sentence.
The informant walked a little unsteadily towards Sukeban, as said horse watched him with curious eyes. As if she realized that the man was struggling, the palomino walked forward and met him halfway. Izaya gave the mare a scratch between the ears in appreciation as he grabbed a black t-shirt from the horse's saddle bag, throwing his bloodied white shirt and black jacket in afterwards. The raven then quickly slipped on the fresh t-shirt and slung an arm around Sukeban's neck to undo Raiju's lead rope from her saddlehorn.
"Come on Suke-chan.", the informant murmured as he shakily pushed off of her to stand on his own. "We have to go find somewhere to hide out."
Izaya was slightly hoping that Shizou wouldn't try to follow him, slightly hoping that they could just part ways like this, but of course Shizuo finally realized that he was leaving and began to follow. The blonde whistled to Raiju to get the stallion to come as he walked to catch up with Orihara. It wasn't hard considering that Izaya was moving at a snail's pace. As if he really could WALK all the way back. When he was caught up with the pair, the blonde reached out and grabbed hold of the mare's bridle to stop her. The palomino's annoyed, shrill neigh was what alerted the raven that the horse wasn't following him anymore. Reddish-brown eyes looked back with an unamused look, demanding an explanation.
"Walking is going to take you years, let me put you on the horse.", Shizuo said as Izaya looked indignant.
"No.", the informant answered without missing a beat before continuing to walk onwards.
"We seriously don't have time for this, flea.", Heiwajima growled. "If you walk, we won't be able to check out even three houses let alone get to town before sundown."
Orihara paused for a long moment, staring out towards the direction of the town, before his shoulders sagged. They were so far out that the buildings of said town weren't even in sight. Walking would take them ages especially since both of them weren't so steady on their feet right now. Shizuo was at least improving by the minute, but Izaya knew that for himself he'd have to take it easy for a few days before he saw any improvement.
"Fine.", the informant sighed as he turned towards the taller man, waiting to be lifted up.
Apparently the blonde was not expecting him to give in so easily because he just dumbly blinked at the smaller for a few long moments.
"Well? Are you going to do it or not?", Orihara asked impatiently.
"Oh... Y-yeah."
Heiwajima immediately went to pick the raven up by hooking his hands under the man's armpits and was met with a squeak of pain as he lifted.
"Wait! Wait! Put me down!", Izaya screeched as Shizuo dropped him as if he'd been burned.
The bartender was confused and even a little scared for a moment until he remembered.
"Shit, your shoulder!", Heiwajima cursed as he watched the informant's eyes water while he clutched his shoulder.
"You can't pick me up that way, you ape!", he hissed as he sent a pained glare in the taller male's direction.
The bartender stood there with a stumped look on his face as Orihara nursed his pride after the girly sounds he had imitted only a few moments earlier.
"How do I pick you up then?"
Izaya clicked his tongue at that as he felt his shoulder begin to throb painfully again.
"I honestly don't care how you do it as long as you don't hurt me anymore."
Shizuo stood still for a few moments longer as he thought of what to do. There was no way he was going to pick the informant up bridal style, but the other option he had come up with wasn't so appealing either.
"Quickly, Shizuo."
"I know, alright!", the blonde growled as he sucked it up and took a step closer to the raven.
Without a word he grasped Izaya's uninjured shoulder and pushed him until he was facing away from him and looking at Sukeban. Orihara looked back at him questioningly for a moment, but didn't comment as he watched the blonde prepare himself. Swallowing, Heiwajima reached forward to wrap his hands around Orihara's waist, but hesitated again.
"...Can I?", the bartender asked lowly, making the informant scoff.
"Yes, Shizuo.", Orihara said rolling his eyes as he finally felt the pressure of the taller male's rough hands on his hips.
The thought that the blonde could easily break them if he so wanted to made the raven a little uneasy, but he forced it down as he let himself be lifted easily onto Sukeban's back.
"There. Was that so hard, Shizu-chan?", the informant smirked as he looked at the bartender's weird expression of distaste and disgust mixed into one.
The male mumbled something incoherent as he walked over to Raiju and took the lead rope off of his bridle and attached it to his horn instead. He then walked back to the palomino and attached the other end of the lead to her bridle so that Izaya wouldn't have to steer. Orihara watched amused as the male walked back to the coal black stallion and got up onto the horse's back with much difficulty. It took a total of five times to finally get seated and in one of those trails, Raiju had decided he'd had enough and tried to walk off.
"Your laugh is annoying! Shut up already!", Heiwajima yelled at Izaya when his bouts of laughter refused to cease.
"Mean, Shizu-chan~!", the informant said in a singsong voice as Shizuo started Raiju off at a trot.
Kida was woken up five hours later by the sound of the door unlocking and then opening. Sitting up slowly and feeling like his space was being invaded in a way, he looked to see who it was. Blue eyes locked with his immediately and then down to the mess on the floor beside the table. Then those same piercing orbs then looked over to Aoba's bed and saw that the younger teen was sound asleep. Egor sighed deeply and walked over to pick up the shattered plates. Masaomi just sat where he was, watching the man's movements as he swiftly cleaned up the mess and dumped the waste into the garbage can. He suspected that the man had been asked to grab the plates from the room. With that done, the man turned to leave but paused for a moment.
"Want to come?", the assassin asked as he opened the door wide in invitation.
Masaomi's eyes immediately drifted over to Kuronuma's sleeping form as he contemplated the offer. The teen would definitely not appreciate waking up to an empty room, but he would appreciate being woken up a lot less.
"He will be fine, Volk. There is nowhere for him to run off to in here. No one will come to take him away either.", the Russian man said as he turned and walked out, waiting for Kida to follow.
The blonde looked at Aoba for a few moments longer before he looked back to Egor.
"Can you guarantee that?", Kida asked the man with hard brown eyes.
"Yes. Are you coming or not?", the assassin responded.
Masaomi sighed and got up to follow the Russian out of the door. Once he'd walked out, the teen watched as the man took out a key and locked the door behind them. The blonde waited patiently for the man to repocket the key and followed silently once he began to lead the way to the stairs instead of the elevators. Kida was confused at that, but didn't question it too much as the man in front of him walked down the stairs quickly.
"So where are we going?", Masaomi finally asked as they reached the ground floor of the facility.
"Hunting.", the man answered shortly.
"For?"
"The wild pig that chased the pipsqueak. Its been causing trouble for a few weeks now and I was told to get rid of it."
Before the smaller teen could respond to that, the scientist who spoke fast and angry russian, heatedly called to Egor from down the hall. The man's face was bright red as he stiffly walked over to the tall man beside the blonde. The grey-haired man spilled out a few sentences to the assassin, spit flying from his mouth as he did so while he stuck his fat finger in both Egor and Masaomi's faces. Kida quickly became annoyed while the Russian beside him kept his cool. When the scientist had stopped talking, Egor finally spoke. The man's voice was calm, smooth, and even as he easily talked down the situation. At the end of his explanation, the scientist looked down at Kida and scoffed before turning away with an irked look on his face.
"What did he say?", the teen asked once they were allowed out of the front door.
"He asked what I was doing taking you outside without permission. He said that we couldn't trust you outside after today, but I said that while looking for the pipsqueak you didn't run off with him once we found him and that I needed your nose to find the pig anyways.", the dirty blonde explained as he walked over to the garage at the side of the facility building.
Taking out another key, the man unlocked the padlock that was keeping the garage door down and pulled it up. He walked in and rummaged around a bit before he reemerged with a rifle and bullets. Kida felt himself breakout in a cold sweat at the sight of it as he shifted from foot to foot.
"If you were going to kill me, at least you could have told me so I could've said my goodbyes…", the blonde said half-jokingly.
Egor raised a brow at this, genuinely confused.
"If I was going to kill you I would have done it while we were still in the room.", the man stated before he walked towards the main gate.
Masaomi felt relief wash over him as he followed the man again.
"So why did you really decide to take me?", Kida asked when they were a few yards out into the treeline.
"You are not as dense as I thought, Volk.", the Russian man said as he bent down to inspect some tracks. "I brought you out here to speak with you."
Kida watched as the man looked at the shape of the footprints carefully before getting up and abandoning them altogether. They weren't the tracks they were looking for.
"Well, you have my attention then.", Masaomi answered finally as the man walked deeper into the forest.
The Russian man hummed as he climbed up a small incline of boulders, Kida stumbling a bit as he followed after him.
"I'm in charge of training you and the pipsqueak. We'll be starting next week.", Egor answered slowly, his mind halfly somewhere else as he kept his eyes on the ground to look for any lead to the wild pig's whereabouts.
"Why couldn't you just tell me that back in the room?", the teen sighed as he looked around for tracks too.
"The pipsqueak was sleeping.", the assassin shrugged.
I am concerned about the effectiveness of having you two work together. You do not usually butt heads but when you do, it results in violence. I am worried that if I give you the skills to take life, you might wind up accidentally killing one another.", the Russian man explained as he picked up a rock and threw it into some underbrush only to cause scared birds to fly up into the safety of the trees.
"We won't kill each other. We've already sorted out our problem and what you saw was just the aftermath.", Kida huffed as his eyes wandered up to the foliage up above them, his attention drawn to the treetops by the offended calls of the birds.
"Won't happen? I wonder about that.", the Russian man murmured softly as he stuck an arm out to stop the blonde in his tracks.
Masaomi's eyes looked past the assassin's arm and saw a wild pig digging around for roots about 50 yards out and upwind from them. It wasn't huge, but it was an admirable size. Egor slowly moved his arm away from the teen and around his back to grab his rifle. With confident movements the man easily lined up the shot and prepared to pull the trigger.
"Do you think you could lure the pig closer?", the assassin suddenly asked Kida, eyes and barrel of the rifle still pointed at the beast still obliviously eating roots.
"You want me to take off my clothes, shift, and then throw myself into danger for no good reason?", the teen murmured back immediately.
"Your training will greatly consist of hunting or herding game. We'll start easy and then work up to smarter, more complicated game later on. I want to gauge your abilities while I have an open chance to. You do not have to if you are not feeling a hundred percent."
"I don't think I can handle something that big yet…", Masaomi said uncertainly as he eyed the pig with wary eyes.
The Russian man nodded slowly and pulled the trigger without warning, making Kida jump and let out a yelp. The beast fell immediately from a clean shot through the head. Masaomi was a little shocked at the scene, but snapped back once he realized that the older male was already leaving.
"Aren't you going to make sure it's dead?", the blonde asked as he followed after the assassin, surprised that he didn't go over and observe it like Varona would have done.
"It was shot through the head. It died instantly.", the man said back as he continued onwards.
"But what if it somehow survived?", Kida argued.
"It would die either way whether it lived for a few seconds or a few minutes longer.", the Russian man said, shooting the argument down immediately.
The teen was silent after that and let himself be escorted back to his room. When the door was shut and locked behind him once again, the blonde noticed that Aoba was still sleeping peacefully in bed where Masaomi had left him. What he did find out of place was two new plates of food sitting out, this time steak and a mixture of vegetables. Both plates had remained completely untouched, telling Kida that the smaller male had either not heard anyone come in or just simply chose not to eat. Both of those reasons made him a little worried, but he quickly decided that it was probably nothing but the smaller just being exhausted.
Sitting down at the table, Masaomi silently picked up his fork and knife and began to cut up his steak. He wasn't all that hungry and knew that he shouldn't eat if he wasn't up to it, but there was nothing else to do but that at the moment. As the blonde began to eat silently, his eyes wandered out the small window between he and Aoba's beds. The sun was setting now and the sky was glowing with a mixture of red, orange, pink, and purple as the sun sunk behind the mountains. Kida's eyes scanned the forest from his high standpoint and noted that the timber was alive with movement. Squirrels climbed trees to get back to their nests, raccoons began to wander about, crickets began to chirp, and owls and bats began to take flight in search of food. For some animals, their day was just beginning while for others it was ending.
Masaomi sighed as he found himself longing for a television set. In the cities and towns that weren't ransacked, they still had that luxury. In those places, life was continuing on as normal. The kids went to school and the adults went to work. The bustle of the city still played in the background and the threat of war seemed like a distant rumble. Most of them would see headlines in the news of disasters and talk about it for a day or two and then the incident would be forgotten. They had other things to worry about. They worried about passing their classes, paying the bills, what they were having for dinner, if the girl down the street liked them or not, or what they wanted for their birthdays. Kida found himself wishing he'd been in one of the cities that got to continue to live like this. He would give his left hand to be able to go back to that life.
Masaomi found himself feeling a little homesick in that moment as he thought of how his life used to be. He'd been mixed up with the wrong crowd back then, getting himself into situations a kid shouldn't even bother with. The drama surrounding his life at that time seemed laughable compared to now, but nonetheless he had still been on the rougher side of things. The blonde then wondered what had happened to Izaya and Shizuo. He weirdly hoped that Orihara had survived the chase and made it safely to Heiwajima. Even though he'd most likely never see the men again, he hoped that they were alive and well somewhere out there. If only he had a phone so he could call the informant.
He knew the man's number by heart and there was no doubt in his mind that Izaya still had his phone with him. It was as easy as pressing eleven buttons and then pressing dial. Kida cursed himself softly at not having thought to grab his phone when he ran out of Kadota's house when the first bombs had begun to go off. Shaking all his thoughts from his mind before he got too caught up in the past, the blonde focused on his food again.
"Is there anyone that you miss from Ikebukuro, Aoba? Do you even make any connections to people strongly enough to?", Kida murmured as he watched the rising and falling of Kuronuma's frame.
"I doubt it. Sometimes I wish I was more like you. Having nothing to tie you back must be nice.", Masaomi continued softly. "I wonder where a lot of the people I knew have ended up and what they're doing while you don't give it a second thought. You can entirely focus on moving forward."
Kuronuma shifted and curled into himself a bit as he began to snore so softly that it almost sounded like the teen was purring. That was a little ironic considering that he was now part canine. Kida sighed at that fact before he got up and slowly returned to his own bed. He still felt exhausted and he wasn't going to deny his body of any rest of he didn't have to.
-Prologue For Next Chapter-
"What about this one?", Shizuo asked as the walked their horses past a medium sized house nearly at the edge of town.
"It's not far enough away yet. Keep going.", Izaya stated as the swelling in his shoulder began to dissipate a bit with the medicine finally coming into effect.
Heiwajima growled in frustration as he pulled Raiju to a stop.
"This is the fifteenth house already, Flea! It's almost at the edge of town and it's more secluded than all the other ones. What more could you ask for? The sun is going down and I want to just get this over with so I can go find Kiyoshi!"
The Informant simply rolled his eyes at the outburst.
"Well sorry for wanting to be safe rather than sorry.", the shorter male said. "Come on. Next house."
"No. This is where I'm dropping you off."
"If you leave me here, I won't stay.", Izaya replied as he looked around for a house more to his liking.
"Leave and I'll break your legs and drag you back.", Shizuo replied as he hopped off the coal black stallion. "You're NOT gonna leave me alone with Kiyoshi."
"So did you decide what you're going to do?", Orihara asked as Heiwajima quickly helped him down and went to tie the horses' leads to the porch.
The blonde didn't respond for so long that the raven thought he wasn't going to answer. The informant watched silently as Shizuo kicked the front door to the house open and walked inside.
"No.", the blonde finally answered as the raven shut the front door behind them.
"Ah, so it seems you're finally seeing some reason then.", Izaya smirked as he took the lead.
Shizuo only growled in response as he followed closely behind the informant. The house was obviously empty, if the 'For Sale' sign in the front yard wasn't anything to go by, but Orihara did a quick check of the place anyways. Shizuo prayed that no one would be here so he could finally go look for Kazuki and to his absolute relief, every room, crook, and cranny turned out to be void of human life.
"It's weird that there's still furniture in here...", Izaya commented as he walked back to the master bedroom.
Heiwajima didn't respond as he watched Orihara inspect the king sized bed at the back of the room, for what the blonde assumed was cleanliness. The informant picked up each of the pillows and examined them closely, before pulling back the sheets of the bed and looking at that too. Seemingly pleased with what he saw, the raven sighed and plopped down onto the mattress; feet dangling off.
"Shizu-chan?", the informant asked as he kicked off his shoes. "Can you go grab my stuff from Sukeban's saddlebag?"
"Why can't you do it?", the blonde asked, annoyed as he watched the shorter male climb under the covers.
"I'm tired and my shoulder hurts.", Izaya whined like a child; his eyes closing pointedly.
The bartender still in the doorway sighed deeply, but turned to go get his things. Upon walking out the front door, he was met with a whiny and a long, black neck reaching out for him. Shizuo was little more than baffled because Raiju never acted this way.
"Oh, hey.", the bartender said awkwardly as he walked down the porch steps.
As if in response, the coal stallion snorted and pawed at the ground, pulling against his rope in clear frustration. Heiwajima was genuinely confused now as Sukeban began to act up as well, bouncing from foot to foot in impatience. The mare glued her eyes to Shizuo's and snorted, beckoning him closer. It took a few more long seconds for the blonde to put two and two together.
"Oh right, you guys haven't eaten all day.", the blonde said as he walked up to the starved horses. "I'll take off your saddles and then I'll turn you two loose."
Shizuo easily unbridled the two and took off their saddles, all the while looking up at the quickly darkening sky nervously. He didn't have time for this, but if he still wanted transportation he had to take the time to get this out of the way. As the pair promptly wandered off after being set free, Heiwajima worried that they'd never come back for a moment before he pushed it to the back of his mind. They were more than likely trained to stay in the general area considering that the horses were used for war. Without giving it another thought, the bartender walked back inside.
When Heiwajima returned to the room, Orihara was already sound asleep.
'Good.', Shizuo thought as he threw the male's stuff to the side. 'Now I know that he's not going anywhere.'
With that said and done, the blonde left. It was dark by now. The sun was just peaking over the hilltops and the night was alive with the sound of crickets' chirping. He had no idea where to even begin to look, but he did know that Kazuki was on a roof. It was a start, but really not much to go off. The town was surprisingly big. Without planning out any sort of route or plan, Heiwajima just stepped off the porch and began to search.